Blog- Modbury - 2mm Finescale (Brunel's Baulk Road) - GWR Down Home

RSS Fetcher · April 7, 2015

Just coming off my workbench is my first 2mm scale signal (actually it's my first completed signal in any scale!)

This one is the Down Home for my fictional Modbury layout. The post has been milled to a tapered profile from 3mm square brass bar, the arm, balance weight and ladder are MSE components. The lamp is my own turning fixed to a small piece of L section brass. The finial is an old (overscale) OO handrail knob with a piece of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire pushed through, soldered and turned to a point in a mini drill. The base of the finial is a small scrap of 0.010" (or 0.008" - can't remember) nickel silver with a 0.5mm hole through it, soldered to the top of the post (with the finial) and then sanded back to be a little proud of the post on all sides.

The drive rod is 36SWG (0.076") phosphor bronze wire, threaded through the balance arm bent through 90 degrees and up through the rod guides (which are small pieces of 0.3mm ID tube soldered to the post oversize and filed back to a more acceptable representation of the rod guides), at the top another 90 degree bend allows the wire to pass through the arm. The ends of the drive wire snipped off and flattened to secure. The glazing in the spectacle plate is "Canopy Glue" which once dry was coloured with Staedler fine marker pens, the greeny blue being just that - coloured blue and once dry over coloured with green. The lenses of the lamp are just simple dots of Canopy Glue on the painted lamp case (although they don't really show).

Below are some images of the completed signal.

The below baseboard drive arm is held in place with a piece of bent Slater's 4mm handrail steel wire, and is removable to allow the arm to be swung inside the channel so that the whole unit can be slotted into the socket in the baseboard. The 8BA bolt will be used to firmly secure the signal in place (although it will need a washer).

Ian

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